Many times when a user requires a circuit, the user frequently knows little more than the requirements that the circuit must satisfy. To obtain the desired circuit, the user may provide a list of the requirements to a business that is knowledgeable about those types of circuits, how to design them, and where to obtain the components to fabricate them. The business may then construct and supply the user with the circuit. The business may have a significant price mark up for these services.
To avoid having to pay the marked up prices, the user may attempt to become educated on circuit design, obtain parts catalogs from circuit component suppliers, and fabricate the circuit. However, the effort and cost required to gain the requisite education and knowledge may not be worthwhile. To reduce the effort required to perform some of these tasks, the user may obtain and install specialized client-side tools, such as the Switchers Made Simple software product available from National Semiconductor Corporation. While such tools may assist in the circuit design and component selection tasks, the user must still go through the manual process of placing orders for the components. Further, given the rapidity with which circuit component manufacturers change their product lines, the component information used by the specialized client-side software will quickly become outdated unless frequently updated. The inconvenience of having to obtain, install, and keep such specialized software updated does not make this the solution ideal.
Additionally, even after a working circuit is designed, the circuit may have thermal characteristics that limit its performance. Thermal characteristics affect the operating characteristics of the circuit and the thermal behavior of a circuit may be affected by the layout of the components on a board. For example, if components are located close together on a board, they may overheat, and if a component in a circuit becomes too hot its lifespan may become limited. A separate thermal simulation may be conducted to observe the thermal behavior of the circuit but this may be costly and time intensive. A user might also have to become familiar with the operating characteristics of each component, as well as the interaction between the components. This often is not practicable.